Many people are focused on creating different products to satisfy the needs of different people. They want to create products that millions of people would want. Then they want to create another product that a different group of a million people would want. The problem is that the web is a very noisy place. There are millions of sellers who sell the same products. Some of them do a better job at making their product unique than others, but they are selling similar or identical products.
Instead of going into the mainstream head first, you need to narrow down your customer audience. Instead of writing a book about social media (2 million potential customers), you can write a book about a specific social network such as Twitter (200,000 potential customers). You can also write a book about how to perform a specific function on Twitter such as getting more retweets (50,000 potential customers).
The numbers are not real, but they serve as an example. Most people would decide to write a book about social media since the amount of potential customers is the greatest in that area. However, the competition for social media is a thick one. The competition for Twitter is smaller, and the competition for performing specific functions on Twitter is even smaller.
The mainstream is the place where too many people go. In order to get noticed, your products have to satisfy a small group of people. If the audience size is 2 million, and your product satisfies 200,000 people, that is a small audience compared to the big audience of 2 million. The smaller your audience, the more specific your product is. When your product is specific, it will get more sales because your product will solve specific problems.
Don’t focus on the quantity of customers. Focus on the quality customers: the people who will buy all of your products and tell all of their friends about them.
You’re too specific when monthly demand for your niche product is too low to turn around a decent profit!
You and Small Business Online have a good point about using profit to determine whether a business is too specific or not. However, not all businesses make a profit right away. Some businesses even see a loss in profit before seeing big profits. Finding out whether a niche is too specific or not is definitely a challenging task. There is no real answer. Cirque de Soleil created a new niche while other people who went into broad niches did not bring in a profit.
I disagree. There is such a thing as being too specific. At the end the day you’re running a business for profit. You’re too specific when the maths doesn’t add up. The maths may not add up when the number of people searching for or demanding your niche product is too low versus the competition that you face, resources invested monthly, desired profit levels, etc.
How do you know when your niche is too specific?
There is no such thing as being too specific.